Android

The thing is, google guarantees 7 years of support, they can't cancel that. The services they closed had no promise on the longevity

Stadia was amazing. I blame everyone but Google on its demise. You could literally play CP 2077 without a console but people still stuck to PlayStation and Xbox. Google handled the shutdown so well. I played around $500 worth of games got the money back. Kept two controllers and bought a steam deck with that money

Because the opposition frames the situation as Google never keeping any promise ever, in addition to refusing to acknowledge Google's positive precedent with Android updates.

If you view the Android update situation in isolation, you'll see that in the 10+ years Google has sold Pixel and Nexus phones, they have kept each one of their Android update promises.

I've been involved with different companies setting up their cloud presence and negotiating prices, and while Google is a contender, they have to aggressively price themselves at the large corporate level because a lot of people in the room don't have trust in them. Why would we onboard to your platform if we don't think you're going to be around very long? It'll take us years to fully migrate, and then once we're in you could shut it down on a whim.

I'm not saying that's a deciding factor at the corporate level for people, but it is a discussion factor that other contenders like AWS or Microsoft azure do not have. So their retail graveyard definitely impacts them at every level

God I can’t imagine why anyone would think that

This made me laugh out loud

What are you talking about? Apple should be lauded for at least having the phone tiers that they have. There's choice for every type of buyer. The 15 pro vs pro max is 3x zoom and 5x zoom. That's IT. You get the same features between each pro phone and get to choose the size that works for you.

Google has hamstrung the smaller phone with a worse screen, much worse camera system (video boost is locked to 8 Pro), no temperature sensor, slower wireless charging speeds, less RAM, gorilla glass Victus 1 vs 2, and an annoyingly glossy back glass.

I bought an 8 Pro for the camera system because I didn't want to be locked out of the better ultra wide and telephoto, but I wish I could have gotten that in a smaller size.

Also in defense of Google - I'm still grandfathered in to the $8 plan for YouTube premium because I signed up and have remained subscribed since 2013 when they offered promotional pricing at the beginning of Google Play Music. Years later, they added YouTube Red (now Premium) to the subscription which REALLY sweetened the pot. But they've never bumped my subscription price up.

I envy you. My OG Pixel has broken down :(

Be prepared to pay when it dies. I assumed it wouldn't count when I got a new phone. It does. So now they want me to sign up for a plan. Well, now they want me to pay more for a higher tier. I got a nas instead. I'm cancelling the plan.

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The thing is that they've clearly promised 7 years now, walking back on the promise would cause them massive issues with consumer protection agencies everywhere they sell - they might be toothless in the US, but Google also sells Pixels in Japan and the EU.

For me, this kinda breaks both ways:

• 7 years of security updates is a promise that my phone won't regress from where it was when I bought it - I typically buy a mid-ish range phone (currently running a Pixel 7a) when they are brand new, and run it for ~3 years before I start to want an upgrade. Lack of security updates usually forces the issue, so a phone with 7 years of security updates guarantees that I'll want to upgrade before I'm forced to, and will be able to pass the phone along to a relative. Where I am, a claim like "we will provide security support until X" is backed up by consumer law, so I'd be entitled to a full refund if they fail to meet that guarantee.
• Buying a phone because the manufacturer promises "feature drops" or because you expect that a future version of the OS will have some amazing features you want is like buying a preorder game - you are a fool for trusting marketing without concrete details